Safety Verification of Interconnected Vehicle Platooning Systems using Contract Negotiation

Core Concepts

The core message of this article is to propose a tractable safety verification scheme for interconnected nonlinear systems, leveraging assume-guarantee contracts and sum-of-squares techniques. The authors develop a contract negotiation approach that exploits the interconnected structure to mitigate the numerical scalability issue in safety verification.

Abstract

The article proposes a safety verification scheme for interconnected nonlinear systems based on assume-guarantee contracts (AGC) and sum-of-squares (SOS) techniques. The key aspects are:

Subsystem Level:

For each subsystem Gi, the authors construct an invariance assume-guarantee contract Ci = (IW_i, IX_i, IY_i) by synthesizing local (control) barrier functions using SOS programming.
They introduce the notions of maximal internal input set W^* and minimal safe region Q^* for each subsystem.

Interconnected System Level:

The authors propose a contract negotiation scheme to find compatible local contracts Ci that satisfy the contract compatibility condition across the interconnected system.
They present three algorithms for different interconnection structures (acyclic, homogeneous, and general) and analyze their properties in terms of termination, soundness, and completeness.

Examples:

The proposed approach is demonstrated on two examples: vehicle platooning and room temperature regulation.
The key contribution is the development of a compositional safety verification framework that can handle large-scale interconnected nonlinear systems by breaking down the problem into smaller, more tractable sub-problems.

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Key Insights Distilled From

A contract negotiation scheme for safety verification of interconnected systems

by Xiao Tan,Ant... at arxiv.org 03-29-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.03164.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

How can the proposed approach be extended to handle more general interconnection structures beyond the acyclic and homogeneous cases considered in the paper

To extend the proposed approach to handle more general interconnection structures beyond acyclic and homogeneous cases, one could consider incorporating more complex graph structures, such as cyclic graphs or networks with varying degrees of connectivity between subsystems. This extension would involve developing algorithms that can handle cyclic dependencies and more intricate relationships between subsystems. One potential approach could be to adapt graph theory concepts and algorithms to analyze and optimize the interconnections within the system. By leveraging graph algorithms like cycle detection, shortest path algorithms, or network flow algorithms, it may be possible to navigate and analyze more complex interconnection structures effectively.

What are the potential limitations or drawbacks of the assume-guarantee contract framework, and how can they be addressed to further improve the scalability and applicability of the safety verification scheme

While the assume-guarantee contract framework offers a systematic and structured approach to safety verification, it may have limitations in terms of scalability and applicability in certain scenarios. One potential limitation is the computational complexity of synthesizing and negotiating contracts for large-scale interconnected systems, which can lead to increased runtime and resource requirements. To address this, techniques such as parallel computing, distributed algorithms, or optimization strategies could be employed to improve scalability and efficiency. Additionally, incorporating machine learning or data-driven approaches to assist in contract synthesis and negotiation could enhance the framework's adaptability to diverse system configurations and requirements.

The paper focuses on safety verification, but how could the proposed techniques be adapted or combined with other control synthesis methods to also address performance objectives for the interconnected system

To address performance objectives in addition to safety verification, the proposed techniques could be combined with control synthesis methods that focus on optimizing system behavior and achieving specific performance metrics. For example, model predictive control (MPC) could be integrated with the safety verification scheme to design controllers that not only ensure safety but also optimize system performance based on predefined objectives. By formulating the control synthesis problem as a multi-objective optimization task, one could balance safety and performance criteria to achieve a desired trade-off. Furthermore, techniques like reinforcement learning or adaptive control could be utilized to continuously improve system performance while maintaining safety guarantees, allowing for dynamic adaptation to changing operating conditions.